


Traditions

by NotEvenThat



Series: Halloween Prompts [5]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Cute things, Domestic Fluff, Halloween, M/M, Magic Less Magnus, Post-Episode: s03e10 Erchomai, Pumpkins, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, pure fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-11 13:29:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16476455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotEvenThat/pseuds/NotEvenThat
Summary: Alec drags home a giant, misshapen pumpkin for him and Magnus to carve.





	Traditions

Magnus’ eyes flew open at the sound of their front door suddenly slamming into the wall behind it. He jolted up, his hands moving as if to protect himself,  as if to check who was there, as if to do something about it if it happened to be someone unwelcome but- Magnus dropped his hands and leaned over to look through the archway instead, everything tense muscle in his body suddenly relaxing at the sight of his boyfriend, lightly dusted with the fresh snow that was still falling outside, struggling to get something his body was blocking through the doorway. 

“What are you doing?” Magnus asked, smirking.

Alec looked over at him with wide startled eyes, as if he hadn’t noticed Magnus’ legs dangling over the couch a few moments before.  He stared like a deer caught in headlights, as if he had been caught too early doing something he had thought he had more time for. “Uh-”

Magnus threw himself with a quirked, curious eyebrow raised, waltzing over to Alec with a slow amused pace.

Alec looked up to him for another second before stepping away, showing the large slanted orange object, currently blocking the doorway into their home. “I uh- I found this.” He said, shoving his hands into his pockets, smiling a soft hopeful grin, as if he wasn’t sure if Magnus was happy with his gift yet. 

“You..” Magnus stopped a few feet away, taking in the sight of the giant- just barely able to fit through the door- pumpkin. It wasn’t round, it was completely warped to one side, a giant deformed oval of a vegetable. It looked exactly like something Alec would see and fall in love with. He always did have a soft spot for weak, deformed creatures, Magnus mused to him. “-found it?”

Alec nodded, smiling wider now. “Yeah, there was some demonic activity out near this old farm at the edge of the city. It was just in back, growing all by itself in the abandoned field. Kinda cool, huh?” He asked, walking towards it again and finally managing to pull the misshapen thing through the threshold and into their home. “It looks pretty good for not being taken care of, right?”

Magnus stepped forward, watching Alec walk around his pumpkin before looking up back up at him, smiling a happy pleased grin. Magnus looked to the lumpy, lopsided pumpkin and then back to Alec, nodding, “It doesn’t look like it has worms at the very least. What are we going to do with it?”

Alec blinked, looking confused for a moment. “We’re going to carve it.” He looked down to his pumpkin again and frowned, as if just seeing the twisted, slanted thing for the first time. “I guess it’s kinda lopsided-” That was the understatement of the century. “-but we can still make it look like something.” He looked up at Magnus again, cocking his head, “That’s what people do for Halloween, right? They carve pumpkins and put them outside with candles.” He explained, looking suddenly worried that he had misunderstood the mundane tradition and had dragged this giant pumpkin home for nothing. “I see them every year.” He insisted when Magnus didn’t answer right away.

Magnus nodded, “Yeah, people do that.” He shrugged, “I guess I just didn’t think you’d want to celebrate Halloween. It seems like a very busy season for you.” With the cold weather that swept in and sunlight that went down earlier and earlier, it always seemed like there were more and more demons as the season shifted, as if they themselves wanted to join in the scary fun.

Alec nodded a little, “Yeah, it is but I’ve never really celebrated Halloween before. I always wanted to carve pumpkins and dress up when I was little but my mom thought it was stupid-” He shrugged easily, fiddling with the crooked, broken stem of the pumpkin in front of him. “I just thought it sounded kinda fun. Have you done it before?” He asked, looking up at him with a slight cock of his head. 

Magnus laughed softly. He had lived for over four hundred years, he is- or- he was immortal and somehow, Alec thought it might be possible that he had never carved a pumpkin before. He nodded and walked towards Alec, stepping around the huge orange obstruction to reach his side and take his hand, softly leaning into his cold skin. “Yes, I have.” He said simply, unable to keep the amused tone out of his voice. “We can carve it. It sounds like fun.” He leaned in and softly pressed his lips against the cold patch of skin under Alec’s chin. “We’re going to have to hollow it out.” He said, stepping away towards the kitchen.

Magnus caught Alec’s confused look behind him and he had to stop himself from turning around and kissing him again, just because of how cute it was. “Hollow it out?”

A soft laugh bubbled out of Magnus’ lips as he grabbed spoons and knives out of the drawer. “Yeah, we have to take all the guts out of the inside before we carve it.”

Alec blinked once and then twice before nodding seriously. Magnus got the sense that he was fully digesting what Magnus was saying, compartmentalizing it so he wouldn’t mess up their pumpkin. He was always a very thorough person.

Ten minutes later, Magnus was bent over the topless pumpkin, elbow deep in the slimy mess that was inside. To the left, there was a brimming bowl of orange mush that had been taken out and right next to it was Alec, sitting on the ground with a serious, concentrated look on his face as he tried to sketch out what they’d carve as Magnus hollowed it out.

“Does that look okay?” He asked softly, leaning away with the marker still held in his hands.

Magnus peered over to look at it, his expression lighting up at the sight of the cat Alec had drawn. “Is it suppose to look like me?”

Alec pressed his lips, shrugging, “It might be inspired by you.” He admitted, looking to the big, wide cat eyes he had drawn in. “-but I thought it would look cute on the porch.” He looked up at Magnus for approval, “You know, where we feed the alley cats.”

Magnus glanced to the cat ears Alec had drawn in and the long tail that went around the other half of the pumpkin and smiled at the thought of it.  “It will look adorable out there.” Magnus said, picturing it. “I’m sure the cats will love it.”

Ever since the colder weather had come, they had put a soft heated blanket out on the love seat for the cats and a couple of warm, roofed cat beds with more than enough food set out. They had to take in the cat food at night to stop other animals from coming to check it out, since Magnus no longer had his magic to keep them away but the cats never seemed to fault them for it.

The pumpkin would look adorable out there with a fake candle in it (so there was no chance of a curious kitten getting hurt). Magnus only wished he could stop it from rotting and withering away but that was far beyond his capabilities now and Magnus certainly wasn’t going to call Cat over for something that stupid. Maybe if she stopped by though, he’d ask.

A half an hour later, they had the pumpkin carved. The ears were lopsided peaks that twisted on the unsmooth surface of the pumpkin. They had tried to carve the eyes out with the slit pupils remaining inside but they had somehow managed to cut both of them out, so they were held inside with toothpicks that were only a little visible and crooked. The tail looked far more sharp than curved as they had wanted. The little paws they tried to cut and stick out (Magnus’ idea) had come out far more like rounded bulbous sticks with no definition between the toes, though they had tried.

It.. looked like a cat, kind of. It was obvious they had been trying to make it look like a cat.

“The ears look like eyebrows,” Alec said next to him, sitting against his legs with pieces of pumpkin scattered around his lap... “Badly carved, angry eyebrows.”

Magnus couldn’t disagree. “The tail kinda looks like a spiky worm.” He said instead, sitting back to stare at their finished product next to him.  

“We suck at this.” Alec supplied helpfully after a moment of quiet contemplation had passed.

The bluntness of it struck Magnus suddenly. He bent over and looked at Alec, laughing hard enough that it took him a moment to gather himself enough to speak.

Alec laughed with him, his expression lighting up at Magnus’ reaction.

“We don’t suck at it.” Magnus said finally, struggling to contain the laughter trying to make it’s way up his throat. “We’re just out of practice- You’ve never carved a pumpkin and I’ve never without-” Magnus cut himself off suddenly, realizing in a jolt where his own sentence was going. His smile dimmed a little bit and he suddenly found it far easier to shove down the laugh and breath again. He looked to their pumpkin, saying far more quietly. “I like it anyway.”

Alec took his hand wordlessly. It was sticky and Magnus scrunched his face up at the feeling of the half-dried goop covering it but he relished in the comfort of his boyfriend’s hand regardless.

He didn’t think they’d get so dirty that they’d need to take a shower just from carving a pumpkin but it was appearing that way. “I like it too.” Alec murmured.

For a moment, they just stared at it and then Alec’s eyes flickered to Magnus and his face lit up in a smile as he reached forward to pluck a pumpkin seed from Magnus’ shirt collar. “Maybe, we should take a shower.” He said, as if reading Magnus’ mind.

Magnus actually looked down at himself and saw that he had gotten pumpkin all over his chest, splatters of guts drying on him and all over his arms despite how hard he’d tried to wipe them off. Even with magic, he had never carved a pumpkin with so much to take out of it. Magnus wondered if there were smaller, less monstrous pumpkins that Alec could have chosen from.

“Yeah, we should.” Magnus stood up and held his hand out to pull Alec to his feet. They looked awful. Magnus absolutely couldn’t believe they had managed to get this messy and the wood floor of the living room looked no better. Now, Magnus couldn’t even wave his hand and take care of it, they’d have to actually-

Alec took his hand, as if following exactly what Magnus was thinking about. “Come on. Let's take a shower and then we can put our pumpkin out, make some tea and watch a scary movie. We’ll clean up tomorrow.”

Tomorrow, all of the pumpkin guts would be completely dried to the floor. It might even take the varnish off, when they finally tried to get it to come free but in that moment, Magnus couldn’t seem to care. Tonight, they would set their pumpkin out. They would make tea, cuddle and watch scary movies and they would enjoy their first Halloween together (admittedly, a few days early but it was almost Halloween none the less and Alec would probably need to be patrolling the mundane chaos when the actual day came). 

When they both finally fell asleep, it was in a mess of limbs with their pumpkin shining brightly out the glass doors. Hours later, a cat came to sniff at it and then curl at its side in the soft pale light of the fake candle. 

Magnus woke up the next morning to Alec’s excited voice, telling him the cats  _did_  love it. Magnus loved it too. He found that he loved a lot of things in that moment. 

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! I'm rushing a little bit so I can put this out on Halloween and not tonight at midnight. I have to get ready to go out with my little brothers in a half and hour so.. There may be some errors that I missed in my hast to post this (though I did try proofread). Regardless, enjoy! 
> 
> I hope everyone has a great Halloween!


End file.
